Funny Little World
by Tyler Marcoz
Summary: There is a subtle humor to the world, little contradictions that tend to escape the notice of most people. Naruto might have noticed, had he not been so distracted. A simple, short, and fluffy piece written for Perpetual159's Dattebayo Challenge.


_**Α**_

There is a subtle humor to the world, if you know where to look for it. Little contradictions and ironies that tend to escape the notice of most people. Some of them are more sad than happy, carrying with them the weight of guilt and remorse, humorous still in their schadenfreude, if nothing else. Others were a sad sort of humor, made funny, or at the least simply happy by the passage of time and the prized human capacity for hindsight. For a shinobi, this ability to be happy in hindsight was the anchor of a balanced mind and the ability to cope with the cruel and unforgiving life that was the path of a ninja.

Naruto did not think this, at least not in as many words. Naruto had the gift of simplicity, seen as a curse to some but made into something respectable, enviable even, by the way one chose to live their life. As Naruto sat in the shade, young girlfriend resting happily against his chest as they sat beneath one of the countless trees that made up Konohagakure no Sato, he found his mind was occupied by thoughts of the past in a way it had not been in a long time, if ever. He traced a finger across the pale skin of her arm, head nuzzled into her dark hair; it smelled of lavender and lilac.

She shifted slightly at his minor attentions, pushing herself closer into his chest. He smiled, pulling her closer. The pale-eyed girl sighed softly.

For all the pomp and humor he carried himself with, Naruto Uzumaki was a very lonely person at his core. There was a two-pronged irony to that fact. On one hand, he had never had a family, and thus in a sad sort of way he could not understand that sort of relationship. He could not know what he was missing. The second part of that however was the natural void that left in his heart, an empty space covered up by pranks, jokes, bright colors, and an unfailing desire to protect anyone who supplied even a modicum of space to fill that empty part of his soul.

It was perhaps for this reason that the girl he now held felt so right in his arms. She had filled a small part of his void, right when he was feeling it at its greatest. The right words, at the right time managed to take him from the brink of that swallowing despair. In his life Naruto had faced many challenges and threats upon his life; they tended to follow him, escalating from issue to issue. But he had almost been lost at the very beginning, if not for the words of a scared little girl who managed to buoy his spirit right when he needed it.

There was another irony there; the girl he'd written off as that shy, dark weirdo had been his saving grace. It was not a dramatic rescue, not the stuff of legends or a great tale. Perhaps that made it more precious, and infinitely more real. And, in its own small way, that little rescue had paved the way for everything that followed. Another irony could be found; Naruto saved her, and she saved him. Through this, they both could be said to have saved so many more. There was a happy humor to that.

She would go on to save him again, nearly at the cost of her own life as well. Perhaps, deep down, in the far reaches of his subconscious, Naruto had a small inkling of just how she'd rescued him so long ago. Perhaps that was why he'd exploded into more rage than he'd ever done. At in another irony, one of perhaps less humor, he'd almost made the greatest mistake of his life by his own failure to rescue her. By grace and love, that was averted, but there was still something to be said that for all the losses he suffered, it took the one who'd once pulled him back from that abyss to leave him staring back into it.

But Naruto did not think these things. He did not think of how much the funny little smile she wore whenever she saw him warmed his heart. He did not think of how she always blushed as red as a tomato when he arrived with flowers or cinnamon rolls simply because. He did not even think of how the simple joy she showed when they did something as simple as resting in the shade of a tree after a picnic made him feel more whole than he ever had. He thought about the here and the now, with the her. He didn't think of the things that had happened, and things that had yet to come. What mattered was holding Hinata Hyuuga in his arms, the smell of her dark hair, the feel of her pale skin, and the love he felt for her right then and there.

Another humor was found here; one so obsessed with the future, of what he would become some day, known far and wide for his boasts of future greatness. That dream had not died, of course. It had changed, gone from the dreams of a little boy to be acknowledged and fill that void, and then transformed into the desire to protect and serve the village. Irony once again showed in the fact that the moment he received all of the acknowledgment he'd always desired, he no longer needed it. Not that he did not enjoy it, savor it even, but he'd received something better, something he hadn't even known he wanted. It was a very real thing, lacking the pomp or celestial bearings that so many people idolized in their romance. The irony there was that it constantly meant they missed the simple joy that was real love. Naruto's gift of simplicity showed its true weight by avoiding that pitfall.

Of course, it almost hadn't been, or at least hadn't been so soon. The threads of fate and history are a tangled mess, so who was to say what might have been. Naruto almost made the mistake of thinking that this small happiness was beyond his reach until he'd 'earned it.' A cruel irony might have shown itself here, in that he showed that he did not deserve the happiness by turning away from it, but by grace it hadn't. A moment of thought allowed him to be a boy, and her to be a girl, and in that to simply enjoy the moments between rather than wasting them. He didn't know what the future would hold, but he knew what his present was. And that was enough, for now. That forever sort of love was a storybook thing, far beyond his own mind.

Naruto planted a small kiss into the top of her head, causing Hinata to smile and murmur softly into his chest. He smiled.

"I love you, dattebayo." He whispered, old habit of loud boasts resurfacing in the form of a quiet statement of simple fact. Her eyes fluttered open, a funny blush spreading across her funny little cheeks as she looked up at him with that funny little smile.

"I believe it." She said, and she did. Naruto leaned down and captured her lips in a soft kiss.

And it was a funny, little, happy thing.

_**Ω**_

**Author Note:  
**This little thing was written on a combination of random whim and a challenge. I'd felt like writing a bit of NaruHina fluff as, despite my tendency to ship and ship hard, my stories tend to be light on it; I can't bring myself to force fluff over the sake of narrative, though I intend to mix in fluff with them more as the stories continue. As per the challenge, Perpetual159's Dattebayo Challenge to be specific also tended to call to me a bit. Seeing as I'll be shipping off to basic training shortly to put on my own uniform, didn't think there would be time to do out a full enough story to live up to my own expectations in the other challenge, so I opted for this one instead.

Just a one-shot for now, about a what-if Naruto hadn't apparently felt that it was a good idea to throw away little happiness until he'd resolved a certain Uchiha issue. Given it's just a small scene, I felt that focusing more on the emotions of one character would be better than trying to divy up attention to both, or focus on the backstory or whatnot. Fleshing it out too much would make it go beyond the intent. So, I just hope you enjoy this little fluffy piece. I may do another, if I get he inspiration. A piece from Hinata's perspective would be amusing.

The story was inspired by a song by Alexander Rybak, which happens to be the name of the story as well. I highly recommend many of his songs. Not for everyone, but they tend to be quite nice regardless. And he can play the violin, a skill that I think everyone should respect. :P


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